Home Run
by Princessabs
Summary: After a hard mission, the light-hearted game of baseball was supposed to help the team relax. However, things quickly go downhill when a misplaced ball leads to an unfortunate accident in the jungle for the youngest Tracy.


Hey Everyone, I'm back with my first one shot story. Thanks to my wonderful beta Little Miss Bump with all her help through out the story.

Just to make clear. I don't own any characters, places or the Thunderbirds.

Enjoy and don't forget to review,

Princessabs

…...................................................................................

Home Run

"Come on, Scott, while we're still young!" Alan shouted, running swiftly down the dirt path. The boys and Tin-Tin were going down to the beach to play a game of baseball to relax and let off some steam after difficult rescue mission in California.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming. Chill, will you?" Scott shouted back. Chuckling to himself, he shook his head. 'Where in the world does Alan get his energy from. That mission in California was enough to tire anyone out but not Alan.' Scott smiled and continued down to the beach.

Once everyone was down on the beach, they decided on the teams. Scott turned to face the assembled group. "Okay, this is how it's going to work: John, Virgil and I will go on one team" John was down from Thunderbird 5 as Brains had offered to take over for the week.

"And me, Gordon and Tin-Tin go on the other," Alan finished.

Scott nodded. "Yeah, everyone all right with that?" He received five affirmative nods. "Okay, then, let's play. Alan, you're up first." He tossed the ball to Virgil for him to pitch.

Ten minutes later, the teams swapped over, and Scott was up first to bat. Tin-Tin pitched, and Scott whacked the ball straight into the jungle.

"Aw man! Scott, we agreed not to hit it too hard!" Gordon yelled.

"Sorry, bro, sorta of forgot about that one," Scott called back, walking up to where Alan and Gordon were standing at the edge of the jungle.

"So, who's going in to get it back, then?" Virgil asked. The four older brothers looked at each other for a long moment, before simultaneously turning to look at Alan expectantly, bright smiles on their faces.

Alan sighed. "Why me? It's always me that ends up going to get it, it's not fair. Why can't one of you lot go and get it for a change?"

"Because you're the youngest, Alan, and you have to do as we say," Gordon answered. Alan opened his month to answer back but Scott got there before him.

"Come on, Al, if you do it this once you won't have to do it again," he suggested, trying to convince

his younger brother into doing it.

"If Alan doesn't want to go, I'll go and find the ball instead," Tin-Tin spoke up. "It can't be that hard to do."

Alan looked at Tin-Tin, then into the jungle. 'I can't let Tin-Tin go in by herself. Sure, she's been in there before, but still, it's dangerous. Besides, it'll make me look like a wuss. I'd better go in myself.'

"No, it's alright, I'll go. Looks like everyone wants me to anyway." He sighed heavily, shaking his head, then walked into the jungle to retrieve the ball.

The jungle was dim in comparison to the blinding yellow brightness of the beach, the overhanging trees merging together high above him to form a green canopy. Stepping around a moss covered boulder, his foot falls muffled by the damp vegetation beneath his feet, he scanned the jungle floor for the ball. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

He only had a vague idea as to which direction the ball had been hit, how the hell was he supposed to find it amongst all of this?

"C'mon, Scott can't have hit it much further than this," he muttered to himself after a few minutes of silent searching, scanning the area as he walked and trying to avoid stumbling over the numerous roots that protruded, twisted and grotesque, from the leaf-strewn ground.

In response to his voice, their came the sound of several warning screeches from a small flock of birds in the treetops above him. All he saw of their departure was flash of yellow and the rustle of leaves as the winged creatures flew up and above the canopy.

A few more minutes past, and Alan had still not found the ball. 'God, where is that ball? Maybe I should just go back and tell them that I couldn't find it?' Alan considered. Then the thought of his brothers teasing him if he returned empty handed came to Alan's mind and he quickly rejected that idea.

Alan was so busy trying to find the ball that he did not notice the small moss covered tree stump on the ground in front of him until his sneaker-clad foot collided with it suddenly, sending him stumbling forwards through the waxy leaves of a large bush, trying to remain upright and regain his balance.

However, before he was able to halt his staggering feet, the ground seemed to vanish beneath him. His stomach dropped as he fell, the wind rushing past him with frightening velocity as he dropped down onto the jungle floor below. Pain exploded through his ankle as his feet hit the ground, sending him toppling sideways, his head connecting solidly with something hard and resolute as the breath was knocked out of him.

Everything started to blur. Alan blinked a few times to try and get his vision back to normal. But the world around him seemed to swirl and waver disconcertingly. The trees moved away from him rapidly, before zooming up right into his face, their shape wavering from fat to thin as the trunks morphed before his very eyes The sharp, throbbing, pulsating ache in his head sent tendrils of nausea up from his stomach to the back of his throat, making him feel as though he was going to throw up.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he grasped his aching head in his hands and lay still on the ground, willing the pain to go away. Despite his confused mental state, he knew one thing:

He needed help.

…...............................................................................

Five minutes had gone by, and still Alan had not returned with the ball. The boys and Tin-Tin were still waiting.

"Come on, Alan, hurry up you slow poke! We want to try and finish the game before it gets dark!" Gordon called into the trees.

"Something must be wrong, he must have gotten hurt or something,"John stated worriedly, glancing over towards Scott. "It doesn't take more then five minutes to retrieve a ball. I mean you couldn't have hit it that hard."

Scott nodded, looking thoughtful, then shrugged and grinned at his brother smugly. "Or maybe I'm just an awesome batter, I mean I am the only one out of you lot to play in a baseball team as a kid."

"Here we go again," Gordon groaned, rolling his eyes and sighing heavily. "Why do you always end up bringing that up when we're playing baseball. We all know you played baseball as a kid but dude, let it die."

Several more minutes passed and the boys were still bickering between themselves. The sun was slowly starting to set in the distance. Tin-Tin had started pacing and was getting more and more worried over the fact that Alan had not yet come back.

She and John, who - unlike his brothers - was keeping quite, exchanged looks. John had the same worried look in his eyes. Tin-Tin sighed, she had had enough and just wanted to go find Alan.

"Guys," Tin-Tin began, trying to get the others' attention. When her attempts were unsuccessful, her eyes narrowed and she frowned in their direction, taking a deep breath. "Guys!". Everyone stopped talking and looked at her. Nodding, satisfied, she continued, "Shouldn't we be out there looking for Alan instead of sitting here bickering? Because if you lot haven't realised, Alan has been missing for almost ten minutes now."

The boys looked at each other, then back towards Tin-Tin.

"She's right, guys," Virgil agreed, glancing down at his watch. "It shouldn't be taking him this long. He would've come back by now, even if he hadn't found the ball. Maybe he's gotten himself lost in there. C'mon, we'd better go see if he's okay."

Everyone nodded and got up from the ground. They made their way to the edge of the jungle. Tin-Tin went to go with them but was stopped as Scott put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe you should stay behind just in case Alan comes back, you know, " he suggested.

Tin-Tin was going to argue with him but then she thought about it for a long moment, torn between her desire to make sure Alan was alright and her ability to use common sense. At last her more reasonable side won and she nodded sullenly. Scott smiled and walked off, following his brothers. Tin-Tin sighed and slumped down on the sand in frustration.

…....................................................................................

Meanwhile, within the dim realms of the jungle, Alan was encountering a few problems. He'd pretty much established that he'd live, the blow to the head having stunned him more than injured him. But still, it didn't half hurt. And the agonizing throb in his ankle wasn't making him feel much better, either. He'd been sitting there - leaning against a tall, spindly tree - for what felt like hours. But, in reality, it had no doubt been less than five minutes since he'd fallen.

Realizing that his brothers were probably wondering where he'd gotten to, Alan let out a resigned sigh and willed himself to start moving. He knew that the prominent lump on the right hand side of his forehead would not go down well with his brothers. It'd be mother-hen mayhem for the rest of the evening. Ah well, at least it had stopped bleeding now.

Carefully moving his feet beneath him and pushing his hands against the leaf-strewn floor, he began forcing himself upright. He'd managed to make it halfway before the bone-deep ache in his ankle became too much and he slumped back to the floor, frustrated and in pain.

Letting out another heavy sigh, he leaned his head back against the thin trunk of the tree and glanced upwards towards the canopy. Climbing back up the embankment was completely out of the question. He'd just have to sit and wait for help to arrive.

….......................................................................................

The boys walked through the jungle but there was no sign of Alan. "He couldn't have gotten that far in," John muttered.

"Well, he must have, otherwise we would've found him by now," Scott replied.

"Wonder if he found the ball? Hope he did anyway, that was our best ball," Gordon commented aloud. Everyone looked back at him incredulously and he spread his hands, shrugging defensively.

"What? I was just wondering."

Everyone just rolled their eyes and looked back ahead of them, towards where the trees became more dense. They came to a sudden drop in the ground where the jungle floor fell steeply downwards for several meters. Scott was about to turn back when he saw a person sitting on the ground at the bottom of the dip their legs spread out in front of them as they sat with their back pressed against a tree. The familiar blond features made Scott's heart lurch within him.

"Alan!" he called. "Alan, up here!"

Alan's head snapped upwards sharply at the sound of his brother's voice. Seeing the red-stained lump on his younger sibling's forehead, Scott sat down on the lip of the steep drop, gripped onto some sturdy-looking roots that jutted out from the broken soil, and swung his legs over. Dropping down onto the leaf-strewn jungle carpet below, he hurried to Alan's side.

Alan's face had broken into a smile. "Guys, thank God," he breathed. "I was starting to wonder if you'd forgotten about me."

"Alan, are you alright?" Scott asked quietly, his voice full of worry as he knelt down next to him, fear on his face. Bringing up a hand, he gently traced his middle and index finger around the edge of the egg-sized lump on his brother's head. Alan winced, pulling away slightly.

He was soon joined by the other boys who, having descended the vertical drop the same way as Scott, had now gathered around their youngest family member, expressions of concern written across their faces.

"I'm okay," Alan assured them, knowing already that they weren't going to buy it. As four hard and worried glares focused themselves on his person, he sighed in resignation and gave in. "Okay, fine. I was looking for the ball but, being the stupid klutz that I am, I didn't look where I was going and ended up falling down here. There, happy?"

"Ecstatic," Virgil replied dryly, already moving to inspect his brother's head injury. His face serious, he looked Alan in the eye. "Were you unconscious at all?"

"Nope," Alan ground out, hating the feeling of being scrutinized like this.

"You feeling dizzy? Nauseous? Any funny vision?" Virgil continued calmly, holding up a finger for Alan to follow.

Alan smirked. "Not unless you count the white rabbit I saw earlier," he remarked casually. "He was running late, so he couldn't stop to chat."

Virgil dropped his hand. "Al, this is serious," he scolded. "At least try to be cooperative. I need to make sure you haven't got a concussion."

"Look, I'm fine," the younger Tracy repeated, slightly exasperated. "I got a whopper of a headache and my ankle's killing me, but it's nothing serious. My vision went a little funny when I first hit my head, but it's fine now. Promise. My ankle hurts the most."

The medic's gaze flicked down towards the swollen joint, the frown renewed as he shuffled backwards a little more until he was in a better position to examine it. Tilting his head to the side, he carefully untied Alan's laces and slid the sneaker off his brother's foot, propping the limb up against his knee and gently pressing around the inflamed area.

"Tell me when it hurts," he instructed softly.

Alan winced and sucked in a sharp breath. "Ow, there. There's where it hurts."

"Okay, you've certainly sprained it. Do you think you can walk?" Virgil asked.

Alan shook his head. "No, I tried to get up earlier but it hurt my ankle."

"We better get back, its getting late. Come on, we'll support him back," Scott spoke up. Virgil nodded and got back off the ground. Scott helped Alan up off the ground, being careful to put as little pressure on his ankle as possible.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Alan complained, as Scott got him back on his feet. Gritting his teeth and exhaling through his nose, he glanced up at the two-meter high drop and frowned. "Uh, Scott? How exactly am I supposed to climb back up there?"

Scott smiled softly. "You're not. The land slopes upwards more steadily over in that direction." He nodded his head towards a cluster of bushes to their right. "I might not know the entire jungle inside out like Tin does, but I've navigated this area before. I had to help Brains collect samples for the database last summer, remember?"

Alan nodded, allowing Scott and Virgil to sling his arms over their shoulders, looping their own arms around his back to keep him upright. Slowly but steadily, they began to make their way through the dense vegetation, the other boys following Scott's lead as none of them knew this area as well as he did.

They supported Alan back on to the path. "Can we ever have one uneventful day, where no one gets hurt or in some sort of trouble?"John wondered, thinking out loud.

Alan smirked. "No, 'cause if we did, our lives would be boring. And what's life without a bit of fun and excitement?"

The boys laughed. "That's why we need you, Alan. You always find some way of making our lives interesting," Virgil pointed out.

They had came to the edge of the jungle. Tin-Tin was still sitting, playing idly with the sand as she waited for them, oblivious to their sudden arrival.

The sun was just setting. A cool sea breeze was starting to pick up.

"Guys, you're finally back! I was about to call your father,"she told them, getting up.

"Yeah, it took a bit longer then we thought it would. We had to walk slower with Alan needing to be supported back, " Scott told her, putting Alan down on the sand.

Tin-Tin nodded. "What have you done to yourself now? Doesn't that hurt?" she questioned, carefully touching the cut on his head.

"Ow! Yes, it hurts!" Alan gritted out, flinching away from the young woman.

"What happened?" she asked softly, her eyes gentle and sympathetic.

Alan blushed in embarrassment. "I kinda....tripped," he semi-lied, rubbing the back of his neck. "I ended up spraining my ankle, too."

"Maybe we should start heading back, Dad must be starting to worry about where we are," Virgil remarked, glancing down at his watch. "It took us longer than I thought to get Alan back here, it's getting late. And anyway, we need to give you a proper check over," he added, looking over at Alan.

Alan smiled and stuck out his arm to be helped up. Scott helped him back to his feet so that he could support him back home.

They were walking up the path that lead from the beach to the house when Gordon remembered something. Coming to a halt, he frowned, glancing back down the path then slowly turning to look at his retreating siblings.

"Guys, where's the ball?"


End file.
